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where do you pink you're going?
Amateur riders on a reverse tandem ride around in Beer Sheva, Israel, before the beginning of the third stage of the 101st Giro d'Italia cycling race on Sunday..
Image:
Nir Keidar/Reuters

Six things about SA you need to know

Timol team goes after more apartheid skeletons

The team of investigators‚ lawyers and human rights advocates behind last year’s reopening of the 46-year-old inquest into the murder in police custody of Ahmed Timol is appealing for information relating to eight more atrocities allegedly perpetrated by apartheid-era police. The cases are the alleged “suicides” in police custody of Neil Aggett‚ Hoosen Haffejee and Babla Saloojee‚ the alleged “accidental” death of Matthews Mabelane‚ the alleged “natural” deaths of Nicodemus Kgoathe‚ Solomon Modipane and Jacob Monnokgotla‚ and the disappearance and murder of Nokuthula Simelane following her abduction by the Security Branch in 1983. Nobody applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty over these deaths. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said he viewed the initiative as part of the TRC’s “unfinished business”. The inquest into Timol’s death, reopened in 2017, changed the finding from suicide to murder at the hands of police.

Plans for ANC KZN elective conference ‘on track’

A rerun of the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal elective conference is within sight as the ruling party concluded the first regional elective conference in KwaDukuza at the weekend. The conference‚ at the Meander Manor guesthouse in Salt Rock‚ is the first of nine. National executive committee member Edna Molewa‚ deployed to monitor the elections‚ said the remaining conferences‚ including one to elect a provincial executive committee‚ would be held before May 31. The conference came in the wake of a threat by a cohort of ANC eThekwini region branch members that they would go to court to halt a provincial conference. The party continues to grapple with a leadership void in KZN, with a court challenge by a group of “rebels” having successfully nullified the elective process which led to the installation of the provincial executive committee in 2016.

'No consequences' for North West bad bosses

The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in North West has cited what it called a lack of consequence management as a major cause of the collapse of service delivery in the province. This comment follows a court ruling that ceded the Mamusa Local Municipality’s movable assets and bank account to a private company for it to recoup R7.8-million owed to it. “The extent to which incompetence is affecting delivery of services to our communities and creating an atmosphere for corruption to thrive needs to be promptly addressed if confidence in public institutions is to be restored‚” Sanco provincial chairman Paul Sebegoe said. He added that maladministration had resulted in inadequate financial controls‚ corruption practices in awarding of tenders, and poor contract management.

Baby M’s dad 'believed to be her rapist'

The Gauteng Department of Social Development has identified Baby M’s father as the man believed to have raped the then two-month-old. The baby’s mother was convicted of aiding and abetting her rapist‚ after she refused to admit that the infant had been raped and insisted she’d been injured when she fell. The girl’s father supported the mother’s claims‚ and openly supported her during the trial. He told eNCA’s Checkpoint that the seminal fluid on the baby’s nappy and private parts - which was too degraded to produce a DNA profile - should be retested. He also strongly denied that he’d raped his daughter. But the department isn’t accepting those denials, saying it was “now pursuing the alleged rapist of the two month-old Baby M, who is believed to be her father”. A media briefing has been called for Monday.

R6.9m found in luggage at OR Tambo

A 27-year-old man was arrested and R6.9-million in cash seized at OR Tambo International Airport on Friday‚ police said. The money was in US and South African currency. Police acted on intelligence and “intercepted luggage suspected of containing undeclared cash”, according to the SAPS. About $199‚300 and R4‚500‚400 was seized. The man was arrested and prevented from leaving for his destination of Mauritius. He is likely to face a charge of contravening the Customs and Excise Act and is expected to appear in the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court on Monday.

DA wants govt probed over listeriosis outbreak

The DA is to write to the Office of Health Standards Compliance to request a full-scale investigation into the listeriosis outbreak. DA health spokeswoman Patricia Kopane said on Sunday the party had reason to believe the department did not follow due testing procedure when trying to identify the source of the outbreak. She said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi admitted in a reply to questions that his department only tested for the presence or absence of listeria at facilities‚ meaning they did not test for the levels of the bacterium at facilities. She said the reality was that all products that came into contact with the listeria bacterium would have tested positive for contamination. It was therefore insufficient to merely test for the presence of the bacterium.

SNAPSHOT

walk for water
A Rajasthani woman collects drinking water from a road side water pump on the outskirts of Ajmer in India.
Image:
Himanshu Sharma/AFP

SIX THINGS ABOUT THE WORLD YOU NEED TO KNOW

'Like Titanic' as cruise ship floods

The scene on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean drew comparisons to the Titanic as 50 staterooms on Deck 9 were flooded. A breach in the Carnival Dream's fire extinguishing system led to water pouring into a corridor. Marla DeAnn Haase, a passenger, posted on Facebook: ‘Um ... FB folks ... this is a rare moment of internet connection ... we are flooding on a cruise, we heard the violins and the silverware all came crashing down. What in the world ... say a prayer for us all.’ That was a reference to violinists continuing to play as the Titanic went down. Carnival Cruises said passengers affected would get full refunds, a 50% credit for a future cruise and could be flown home before the end of the cruise. – The Daily Telegraph

Facebook helps jihadists hook up

Facebook has helped introduce thousands of Isil extremists to one another. The social media giant - already under fire for failing to remove terrorist material - is now accused of actively connecting jihadists around the world, allowing them to develop fresh terror networks and even recruit new members to their cause. Researchers discovered users with radical Islamist sympathies were routinely introduced to one another through the popular ‘suggested friends’ feature. – The Daily Telegraph

A Stormy encounter for 'Trump'

Stormy Daniels, the real one, took on Donald Trump, depicted by Alec Baldwin, on comedy show ‘Saturday Night Live’ and taunted him saying the only way to end the furore over their alleged tryst was for him to resign. Daniels drew screams and applause when she. In a skit that got playfully raunchy at times, Trump asked Daniels what it would take to make the whole thing go away. ‘A resignation,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ve never been so scared and horny at the same time,’ the fake Trump said. - AFP

Graffiti the new Instagram craze

Social media is fuelling a resurgence in graffiti as artists compete for recognition and fame by posting photographs of their work. New ‘hi-tech graffiti artists’ are using picture websites like Instagram to gain global recognition, as well as technology such as drones that serve as lookouts to try to prevent police catching them. Graffiti on trains has hit an eight-year high in the UK, with many images then being posted on social media. The surge in graffiti has forced the British Transport Police to reintroduce a dedicated CID team to specifically investigate graffiti crime. – The Daily Telegraph

Millennials too scared to have sex

Millennials are waiting longer to have sex, with one in eight still a virgin at 26 years old, new research has found. One in 20 people in previous generations were still virgins at that age. The sharp rise in the number of young people waiting longer to have sex may be because of a ‘fear of intimacy and the pressure of social media’, said analysts. ‘Millennials have been brought up in a culture of hypersexuality which has bred a fear of intimacy,’ they said. – The Daily Telegraph

Ian McEwan flunks test on own novel

‘Atonement’ author Ian McEwan feels ‘a little dubious’ about people being compelled to study his books, after helping his son with a school essay about his own novel and receiving a C. ‘Compelled to read his dad's book - imagine. Poor guy,’ McEwan said. ‘I confess I did give him a tutorial and told him what he should consider. I didn't read his essay but it turned out his teacher disagreed fundamentally with what he said. I think he ended up with a C+.’ – The Daily Telegraph